Music videos started to become more relevant since the 80s and still exist till this day. Which decade has the best ones?

 

Some examples:

 

80s

 

90s

 

00s

 

 

10s

 

20s (so far)

 

Edited April 17, 20233 yr by Technicolor

90s and that is the only correct answer.

90s and then the 80s 

90s or 2000s

Tough choice between 00s and 10s, but I ended up going with 10s.

Definitely the 90s. Newer technology and fresher ideas beget experimentation with different lenses, camera techniques, editing, etc. Plus, the budgets were bigger, even for smaller acts. Many famed music video directors came from this decade, some of which went on to direct feature length films. 

20’s lol

90s/00s. Nothing compares to those two decades. 

90’s by far

90s had BUDGET , 00s were close but they started to get VERY LAZY toward end of the 00s…Gaga literally revived them 

90s because labels would spend $$. Now so many music videos look like iMovie projects.

00s

1 hour ago, Soda Pop Queen said:

Definitely the 90s. Newer technology and fresher ideas beget experimentation with different lenses, camera techniques, editing, etc. Plus, the budgets were bigger, even for smaller acts. Many famed music video directors came from this decade, some of which went on to direct feature length films. 

All of this.  They actually allowed 90s directors and artists to try out new stuff, for better or worse, since they knew people cared about the videos.  In the 2000s, videos became somewhat cookie cutter, with labels pushing newer artists to chase trends and fit certain molds.

 

And then in the 2010s, most mainstream videos just reeked of "we're putting in minimal effort because we know y'all are playing the video on Youtube while browsing other tabs, anyway."  Only big artists who were already known for caring about their visuals continued to make good videos in this decade.

2010s are clearly peak era for music videos

It was a huge way of consumption (till like 2018) so artists invested much more on them plus the technology had increased a lot allowing videos with great quality

Also the mass availability due to Youtube made them much more accesible for everyone

MVs before 2010s were cute things but in 2010s they were key part of a song cause youtube at one point was the biggest platform for music consumption lol

depends on the Genre. Hip-hop music videos were best in the 2000’s, Dance and Pop MV’s were best in the 90’s. Rock & Metal MV’s were superior in the 80’s. Kpop Best music videos are still the 2010’s. In general tho Music videos in the 90’s and late 80’s kinda stand the test of time. I prefer the 2000’s just based on Nostalgia but I’ll admit the 90’s kinda slay. MV’s nowadays don’t be hitting at all. 

Mid 00s to mid 10s when a good MV could really sell a song and a big debut on YouTube was a huge thing that really pushed the song to be successful. Now MVs are kinda dead as is YouTube so the incentive just isn’t there. 

10s for We Found Love alone

80s and 90s when MJ was making videos. 

The 90s by far. It was when music videos started to resemble films more and the new technology sparked a lot of creative ideas.

 

Even when artists didn’t have big budgets, they still found a way to be innovative and it was still effective.

90s, easily.

2010s

The 90’s followed by the 80’s.

 

A lot of the original, innovative, music videos that have been replicated or duplicated today were birthed from the 1980’s. 
 

We will never see music videos as instantly groundbreaking and visually iconic as “Thriller”, “Like A Prayer”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), “Rhythm Nation”, Nasty”, “Addicted To Love”, “Little Red Corvette”, “Money For Nothing”, “When Doves Cry”, “IWDWS” etc. ever again. Although, for our generation, the 2009-2014 period came close. 

 

That said, the 90’s is where music videos became flashier or more outlandish, conceptually versatile and thought-provoking, even sexier and more sultry, depending on the artist/genre (there were more variables to making a good music video during this time with bigger budgeting), and I appreciate them more and have more of a connection to them. 

Edited April 17, 20233 yr by GoodGuyGoneGhetto

The TRL era, from about 1998-2007, was the golden age of music videos. The quality quickly went downhill in the final years of the 2000s and early 2010s.